The Beck, Limbaugh, Savage and Hannity shows are funded by Clear Channel. Clear Channel also owns 850 radio stations nationwide. Clear Channel is owned by Bain Capital (Yes Romney's company). So a very small group of very wealth men control the message sent to 115 million American's every week.

Those wealthy men do not want their agendas tampered with by a Pope who is actually preaching the real message of the bible. This Pope has shown by example that he cares for the sick and the poor. He's said that trickle down economics is a fraud (which it is) and that the rich aren't following God's message.

These wealthy men are going to go toe to toe with a major religion to promote their agenda of creating an American Oligarchy.

Oh poor Rush. When it's the Dalai Lama or some brown guy with a funny name telling folks the same thing, it's OK, because, obviously, they just don't know any better, but it's almost as if some hippy from Nazareth had gotten to the Pope...

Good luck with this one. I mean, it won't really change the Prosperity Gospel folks, because they parted ways with the Bible a long while ago in favor of their wallets, but Rush and his ilk might want to choke back their bile a bit, because this is a fight they really don't want to pick.

You judge a man by his enemies, and this point, Pope Francis is pissing off all the right people. Good on him.

So an incalculably rich monolith best known for legions of never-questioning acolytes bent on spreading the gospel under pain of death and for covering up wanton abuse of little boys...versus the Catholic Church?

Three Crooked Squirrels:As a lapsed Catholic and non-believer, I've been thinking that I kind of like this Pope. The fact that Rush is at odds with him only confirms my suspicion: He must not be half bad.

i'm openly pagan and even I like this Pope. I don't agree with all his policies but...DAYUM does he got the prosperity gospel preachers and their minions in an uproar! Francis is quite a thorny problem for the Republicans. they can't simply dismiss him or his comments. oh sure, the US evangelicals have never liked the Catholics but they need their support for the pro-life agenda. so there's a limit on how far they can go with retaliation. Not to mention that there is NOTHING the likes of Rush Limbaugh can do to threaten the Pope to bring him into line. Even trying to lean on the Pope is a public relations nightmare for the Right wing. They can't shut the guy up, they can't ignore him, and even when they disagree with him they have to be respectful of the Church or they risk a schism in the ranks.

Pope Francis is a smart guy. He's found the one fracture point in the GOP that they can't do anything about and he just hammered a spike thru it with a sledgehammer. I hope he gives it another whack!

bluorangefyre:I was gonna say in another thread that we needed to strap Kanye West to a rocket and launch him directly into the Sun, but now I think we'd have room to squeeze in Rush on that one-way trip to the nearest star.

Kanye is a colossal douchebag but if I had a gun with 2 bullets and he was standing between me and Rush, I would have to say, "Excuse me Mr. West, I have to double tap this motherfarker".

I have heard MANY MANY people say what you just said. Think about it, this Pope has aligned himself and church leadership with the bible, which has attracted a huge number of non-believers. Who would have guessed?

White Christian protestants were always taught to detest the evil papist Catholics. A lot of people don't realize what a shiatstorm it was for most WASP's when Kennedy ran for president.They were sure that the U.S. would be enslaved by the Vatican. I was born shortly before Kennedy was elected and grew up Catholic, so the phenomenon of bringing Catholics into the hard right religious movement always seemed very odd to me, and tenuous.

NFA:The Beck, Limbaugh, Savage and Hannity shows are funded by Clear Channel. Clear Channel also owns 850 radio stations nationwide. Clear Channel is owned by Bain Capital (Yes Romney's company). So a very small group of very wealth men control the message sent to 115 million American's every week.

Those wealthy men do not want their agendas tampered with by a Pope who is actually preaching the real message of the bible. This Pope has shown by example that he cares for the sick and the poor. He's said that trickle down economics is a fraud (which it is) and that the rich aren't following God's message.

These wealthy men are going to go toe to toe with a major religion to promote their agenda of creating an American Oligarchy.

The same type of oligarchy is in place for print and television media as well - a few control the many. Most of that consolidation occurred last two decades.

The most amazing thing about all this is the Pope is managing to get these modern-day Pharisees to preach against the very Bible they profess to believe in.

Pope Francis hasn't changed a single policy of the Church. The position of the Church on abortion and same-sex marriage hasn't changed. The position of the Church on charity and peace and giving hasn't changed. The scripture he cites is from the same Bible that the prosperity gospel preachers sermonize from (but mostly ignore).

The only thing the Pope has done is state that to an outsider looking in for the past few years, it would seem like the only issues the Church cared about were abortion, gays, and contraception. The Council of Bishops didn't spend nearly the time or effort decrying homelessness, or cuts in food stamps, as they did opposing gay rights. The bishop in Illinois that performed an "exorcism" after same-sex marriage passed in Illinois was silent as many of his own parishioners likely were getting squeezed by multinational entities, reduced food assistance, and cuts to local programs.

All the Pope has said is that all those issues that Jesus preached about matter, and in fact he preached aboit those things an order of magnitude more than he spoke about gays (not at all) and the like.

And for that, he has the Republican Party and its mouthpieces actively preaching AGAINST the Bible. Stunning.

I thought he was going a little overboard on the 'common man' touch and I thought there might have been a little bit of PR involved there. But nevertheless, I was willing to cut him some slack . . . If he wants to eschew the physical trappings of the Vatican, O.K. Cool. Fine.

sickened me. fark you Rush. "willing to cut him some slack"? For actually trying to live a LITTLE BIT like the Jesus actually taught?

Weaver95:Three Crooked Squirrels: As a lapsed Catholic and non-believer, I've been thinking that I kind of like this Pope. The fact that Rush is at odds with him only confirms my suspicion: He must not be half bad.

i'm openly pagan and even I like this Pope. I don't agree with all his policies but...DAYUM does he got the prosperity gospel preachers and their minions in an uproar! Francis is quite a thorny problem for the Republicans. they can't simply dismiss him or his comments. oh sure, the US evangelicals have never liked the Catholics but they need their support for the pro-life agenda. so there's a limit on how far they can go with retaliation. Not to mention that there is NOTHING the likes of Rush Limbaugh can do to threaten the Pope to bring him into line. Even trying to lean on the Pope is a public relations nightmare for the Right wing. They can't shut the guy up, they can't ignore him, and even when they disagree with him they have to be respectful of the Church or they risk a schism in the ranks.

Pope Francis is a smart guy. He's found the one fracture point in the GOP that they can't do anything about and he just hammered a spike thru it with a sledgehammer. I hope he gives it another whack!

Francis is certainly doing his part to take on this prosperity gospel shiat, and that's a good thing. Wow, me kinda liking a pope....that is scary.

NFA:The Beck, Limbaugh, Savage and Hannity shows are funded by Clear Channel. Clear Channel also owns 850 radio stations nationwide. Clear Channel is owned by Bain Capital (Yes Romney's company). So a very small group of very wealth men control the message sent to 115 million American's every week.

Those wealthy men do not want their agendas tampered with by a Pope who is actually preaching the real message of the bible. This Pope has shown by example that he cares for the sick and the poor. He's said that trickle down economics is a fraud (which it is) and that the rich aren't following God's message.

These wealthy men are going to go toe to toe with a major religion to promote their agenda of creating an American Oligarchy.

Coincidentally the Clear Channel family is represented by Michael McCaul, a person so un-electable even in Texas that Tom DeLay had to carve out a district just for him (TX-10)

He has no idea what goes on in his district - when a major defense contractor pulled out, the Chronicle asked him about it, and he was apparently totally unaware that 10,000 well-paid jobs just disappeared from his district.

But he's a Republican in Texas, and with the assets of Clear Channel at his disposal, I'd say it's unlikely he actually needs to give a sh*t.

This came up on my Facebook feed and one of my super-right wing pals (one even my other right wing pals have put on ignore.) Insisted that Jesus said NOT to help the poor and backed it up by quoting Matthew 26:11--"You will always have the poor among you . . . "

Once I read that I needed to go look at smut on Tumblr to clear my head...

Churchill2004:He's the Pope. All he does is talk.He's still the CEO of a multi-billion dollar international corporation, that has extensive real estate and artistic holdings.A guy who literally owns his own country telling others to give up their wealth is the very definition of hypocrisy.

He's the Pope. That much is true. Everything else you've made up missed the mark. The Pope no more owns the Vatican than the President owns the White House. In fact, the Pope (literally) owns nothing and is paid nothing.

While Rush's venom is always a spiteful and horrible thing, there IS a reason why genuine Catholicism and capitalism have historically been at odds- because it was Protestants who invented capitalism in the first place! Pope Francis is just going back to the positive side of what Catholicism used to be. A landmark book proves this hypothesis, and it is a standard sociology text at many universities:

However, when Rush says "There's no such (thing as) 'unfettered capitalism.' That doesn't exist anywhere." he forgot one last word in his sentence- Yet.

///Some right-wingers would love there to be unfettered capitalism, and are working towards it with all their might, and the ONLY reason we don't have it yet is because we the people are just so ornery and refuse to stop fighting back!

This pope may actually go after the child-boinkers or, better yet, let secular authorities do so. The recent staff changes he's been making, both in the Papal "Court" and in the Vatican bank, have been to specifically remove men who were allies of those behind the child-boinker coverup. It's possible he's slowly getting ready to blow the lid off that entire terrible business.

I'm not a Catholic, but from a strategic pov that's something he needs to do. The child-molestation scandals lost them most of the US, French, and English congregations decades ago, but more recently it's cost them Ireland, the Catholic parts of Germany, and some of the Polish, Central American, and South American faithful as well. They really can't afford to not do anything about this in the hopes of winning back those European and American congregations.

namatad:Cuchulane: White Christian protestants were always taught to detest the evil papist Catholics. A lot of people don't realize what a shiatstorm it was for most WASP's when Kennedy ran for president.They were sure that the U.S. would be enslaved by the Vatican. I was born shortly before Kennedy was elected and grew up Catholic, so the phenomenon of bringing Catholics into the hard right religious movement always seemed very odd to me, and tenuous.

YupJust another anti-papist rank from people who have always HATED the pope.YAWN

/1) I am an atheist and think all religion is delusion. 2) this pope sure has been different than the last one (in good ways) 3) being against religion is not the same as thinking that this new pope sure seems to be following christ, not christianity

I'm right there with you dude. I'm an atheist now, but I was raised in a pretty liberal, help-the-poor-and-less-fortunate Catholic Church. Just because I don't think Jesus was the son of god (or that he might not have even existed), doesn't mean I disagree with what Jesus says in the bible. I mean, dude was all about the social justice and taking care of "the least among thee". It's just too bad more atheist don't realize how positive and beneficial Jesus' philosophy was.

Mostly I blame Paul and Christians in general. And I think Ghandi said it best: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians, they are not like Christ."

Cuchulane:White Christian protestants were always taught to detest the evil papist Catholics. A lot of people don't realize what a shiatstorm it was for most WASP's when Kennedy ran for president.They were sure that the U.S. would be enslaved by the Vatican. I was born shortly before Kennedy was elected and grew up Catholic, so the phenomenon of bringing Catholics into the hard right religious movement always seemed very odd to me, and tenuous.

YupJust another anti-papist rank from people who have always HATED the pope.YAWN

/1) I am an atheist and think all religion is delusion. 2) this pope sure has been different than the last one (in good ways) 3) being against religion is not the same as thinking that this new pope sure seems to be following christ, not christianity

31So Moses went back to the Lord and said, "Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. 32But now, please forgive their sin-but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written."

33The Lord replied to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. 34Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin."

I was gonna say in another thread that we needed to strap Kanye West to a rocket and launch him directly into the Sun, but now I think we'd have room to squeeze in Rush on that one-way trip to the nearest star.

kidgenius:DirkValentine: Before i read any of the comments I wanted to say that this :

I thought he was going a little overboard on the 'common man' touch and I thought there might have been a little bit of PR involved there. But nevertheless, I was willing to cut him some slack . . . If he wants to eschew the physical trappings of the Vatican, O.K. Cool. Fine.

sickened me. fark you Rush. "willing to cut him some slack"? For actually trying to live a LITTLE BIT like the Jesus actually taught?

Goddammit Rush, shut the fark up, YOU COCK.

I like how he thinks the 'common man' thing this pope has going on is just an act.

It really farking upsets me that he and others have been able to twist the narrative so much that "common man" is a de facto pejorative.

BitwiseShift:Still trying to figure out this one whose torrid affair with Rush Limbaugh landed her on 2 Broke Girls. Could it be Rush is a Theological Svengali, ministering to the bisexuals among us, and Francis is in line as a conquest?

Kibbler:The Dog Ate My Homework: The tight relationship between Catholics and conservative Protestants in the U.S. has always seemed bizarre to me. The only thing they seem to have in common is the abortion issue. Catholics have sold out on practically everything they ever believed in for that single issue.

No. They also have blah-man-in-the-White-House in common. Not to mention civil rights since 1964. Come to Chicago and talk to some white Catholics.

Really? I've been chilling with some Chicago Catholics all day here on the South Side and they like the blah guy *and* Pope Frankie. Maybe your problem is cub fans.

Rush will talk shiat about the Pope on the radio all he wants because if he walks the walk into the Vatican, he will only take one step in before he inflates and explodes like Thunder in Big Trouble in Little China.

Churchill2004:He has more practical power over those holdings than Elizabeth II has over her holdings, and nobody would say with a straight face that she isn't rich.

Probably because the Queen has an actual portfolio handled by the government. In theory the Pope could say that all Catholic assets now belong to the public. In reality if he tried to do this the Cardinals would probably find other means of removing him which historically isn't unheard of.

ClearChannel vs. the Vatican? What a nice early Christmas present a month out. I'm not even Christian, and Pope Francis makes me want to convert.

Aside from the reasons already stated in the comments, ClearChannel is on my eternal shiat list for cancelling the only real rock station in the Bay Area (KSJO) with no warning or notice. And this is a station that had a legendary vault of live rock recordings; from classic Bay Area concerts of Jimi Hendrix, Led Zepplin, The Who, Carlos Santana and Bob Marley up to the studio jam of 'Tuesday's Gone' by Metalica featuring Les Claypool, Jerry Cantrel, and Garry Rossington (this was a good 3 years before it got released on an album).

So yeah, fark Clear Channel. They deserve to be tied into a dying broadcasting model.

Weaver95:Three Crooked Squirrels: As a lapsed Catholic and non-believer, I've been thinking that I kind of like this Pope. The fact that Rush is at odds with him only confirms my suspicion: He must not be half bad.

i'm openly pagan and even I like this Pope. I don't agree with all his policies but...DAYUM does he got the prosperity gospel preachers and their minions in an uproar! Francis is quite a thorny problem for the Republicans. they can't simply dismiss him or his comments. oh sure, the US evangelicals have never liked the Catholics but they need their support for the pro-life agenda. so there's a limit on how far they can go with retaliation. Not to mention that there is NOTHING the likes of Rush Limbaugh can do to threaten the Pope to bring him into line. Even trying to lean on the Pope is a public relations nightmare for the Right wing. They can't shut the guy up, they can't ignore him, and even when they disagree with him they have to be respectful of the Church or they risk a schism in the ranks.

Pope Francis is a smart guy. He's found the one fracture point in the GOP that they can't do anything about and he just hammered a spike thru it with a sledgehammer. I hope he gives it another whack!

I'm a Pagan and I like the Pope because he seems like a decent guy who honestly has a brain somewhere in his skull. The rest is just gravy. :p

There is no Catholic political common ground. And the Pope makes no difference.

Vatican kinda sets the overall theme for the church.

If he theme is less "shame homosexuals and baby killers" and more "shame the greedy rich," well, great.

True. But I went to Catholic School for twelve years. My senior class produced to Priests. One is very much like Francis and one is very much like Benedict. I don't think either will change their sermons based on what the current Pope is preaching. It's the American Catholic church - a whole other monster.

Churchill2004:glmorrs1: I mean, dude was all about the social justice and taking care of "the least among thee"

When he wasn't busy condemning divorce and remarriage as adultery, or cursing random fig trees.

You know, I was going to say I never said he was perfect or that I agree with 100% of what he said, but then I read the rest of the thread and now I'm just wondering who pissed in your cherrios turkey and dressing.

glmorrs1:I'm right there with you dude. I'm an atheist now, but I was raised in a pretty liberal, help-the-poor-and-less-fortunate Catholic Church. Just because I don't think Jesus was the son of god (or that he might not have even existed), doesn't mean I disagree with what Jesus says in the bible. I mean, dude was all about the social justice and taking care of "the least among thee". It's just too bad more atheist don't realize how positive and beneficial Jesus' philosophy was.

NFA:The Beck, Limbaugh, Savage and Hannity shows are funded by Clear Channel. Clear Channel also owns 850 radio stations nationwide. Clear Channel is owned by Bain Capital (Yes Romney's company). So a very small group of very wealth men control the message sent to 115 million American's every week.

Those wealthy men do not want their agendas tampered with by a Pope who is actually preaching the real message of the bible. This Pope has shown by example that he cares for the sick and the poor. He's said that trickle down economics is a fraud (which it is) and that the rich aren't following God's message.

These wealthy men are going to go toe to toe with a major religion to promote their agenda of creating an American Oligarchy.

I'm sure Pope Francis is severely concerned about the response his social views engender in a man with three divorces, who smuggled Viagra in his luggage to a country known for child prostitution, who has only a flirting knowledge of the "thou should not bear false witness" commandment, and who regularly takes God's name in vain several times an hour by saying the Lord endorses his program by giving him his talent.

unyon:Weaver95: Even trying to lean on the Pope is a public relations nightmare for the Right wing. They can't shut the guy up, they can't ignore him, and even when they disagree with him they have to be respectful of the Church or they risk a schism in the ranks.

There is always one reliable way to shut him up. I'm just saying he should carefully check the undercarriage of the popemobile before firing her up.

31So Moses went back to the Lord and said, "Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. 32But now, please forgive their sin-but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written."

33The Lord replied to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. 34Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin."

Weaver95:Even trying to lean on the Pope is a public relations nightmare for the Right wing. They can't shut the guy up, they can't ignore him, and even when they disagree with him they have to be respectful of the Church or they risk a schism in the ranks.

There is always one reliable way to shut him up. I'm just saying he should carefully check the undercarriage of the popemobile before firing her up.

Wow, Rush was willing to cut the Pope some slack. I'm sure the Pope was mighty grateful that El Rushbo cut him some slack. But now, The Fat One is PO'd...Watch out, Pope!! Rush may not cut you any slack in the future!! Then you'll be in REAL trouble! So shape up Francis, before Rush makes your life a living hell!